The problem of maximizing diversity deals with selecting a subset of elements from a given set in such a way that the diversity among the selected elements is maximized. The maximization of diversity in a selected subset has applications in telecommunications, plant breeding, social problems, and ecological preservation. There are generally two approaches to formulating these problems: the max-sum and the max-min models.
The max-min diversity problem (“MMDP”) consists in selecting a subset of m elements from a set N of n elements in such a way that the minimum diversity between the chosen elements is maximized. While deriving a solution to an MMDP with a small number of elements in the set N may be trivial, as the number of elements in the set increases, the solution becomes very difficult, requiring an excessive amount of computer processing power.